The boat remains faithful to the line’s emphasis on elegance, high performance, and comfort for offshore sailing and longer voyages. But she completely rethinks the main living areas of a yacht intended for sunny climates. This is Jeanneau’s first private-owner model to use the accommodation concept, drawing on experience with the resolutely charter-focused Sun Loft 47 of 2019.
Design and Construction
Briand gave the Yachts 55 relatively low freeboard and powerful sections for plenty of form stability. The 16-foot-4-inch beam is carried all the way aft, supporting the expansive dual-cockpit arrangement.
The hull is built in vacuum-infused polyester, with solid laminate around the keel. A matrix glued into the bilge helps distribute keel loads. The standard 8-foot bulb keel carries 10,803 pounds of iron ballast, giving a ballast-to-displacement ratio of nearly 26 percent. The shoal-draft, 6-foot-2-inch keel trades draft for 12,540 pounds of ballast.
Inside, the joinery is well executed in Alpi wood veneers, and the standard of finish generally looks very neat.
Jeanneau’s trademark walkaround deck opens the route forward. Outboard of the wheels, the side decks slope upward toward the foredeck, refining the ramp first seen on the Sun Odyssey 440 in 2017. This provides easy, step-free access while creating a deep bulwark, with an extra-high 36-inch rail outboard of the winches.
Rig, Handling, and Performance
The deck plan centers on Jeanneau’s Dual Cockpit. Twin helms sit forward of the aft lounge and are sheltered by a hardtop and wide, wraparound windscreen, while still providing remarkable visibility.
The standard mainsheet arch keeps the sheet safely clear of the cockpit. However, its mainsheet has no traveler, limiting fine control over sail shape.
A deck-stepped Sparcraft mast carries an Incidence furling mainsail as standard, paired with a self-tacking jib and self-tacking staysail. The halyards run on a locking track along the side of the mast. Each helm has a pair of electric Harken winches, including one with back-winding. On the test boat, one person could handle all furling and reefing electrically.
Test sailors found the Yachts 55 stiff and quick under sail. In puffy conditions, heel never exceeded 13 degrees. Upwind, she held an apparent wind angle of 30 to 35 degrees and settled at 7.3 to 7.9 knots with the genoa. Off the wind, she topped 8 knots. The twin rudders, mounted all the way aft, were entirely balanced.
Auxiliary power comes from a shaft-drive Yanmar 110-horsepower inboard turning a three-blade Flexofold propeller. The 24-volt system is fed by six 95-amp-hour batteries.
Accommodations
The layout treats the interior as a private apartment, with the forward owner’s suite taking up fully two-thirds of the space below. The main companionway provides private access to this suite and has numerous handholds for safety. It opens into a full-width cabin with the bed offset to port, a secluded desk or optional large wardrobe, and an almost full-width head and shower right forward.
Two guest cabins have their own bathrooms and separate companionways from the cockpit, just forward of the helms and beneath the hardtop’s shelter. The port cabin is the larger of the two and includes a compact sofa. In the starboard cabin, access to the head is awkward. The steep descent can also make the guest spaces feel potentially claustrophobic.
Winch designed the galley and the rest of the interior. A very long galley runs along the starboard side, while a saloon for six sits to port. Two flexible tables raise and lower electrically.
The separation between spaces has practical drawbacks. To reach the galley from either guest cabin, crew must climb into the cockpit and then descend the main companionway. There’s also no easily accessed day head beyond the three ensuites.
Cockpits, Deck Equipment, and Stowage
The aft relaxation cockpit contains two saloons, one U-shaped and the other L-shaped. Both convert into sundecks. A gigantic hydraulic swim platform and fold-out electric grill serve this outdoor living area.
Farther forward, the control center combines the two helm stations with an above-deck navigation station and watch bench. Raymarine instruments sit in a molded panel, and Carbonautica composite wheels are optional. There’s also an exterior chart table with GPS and autopilot.
Rather than fitting a dinghy garage, Jeanneau uses telescoping davits and a built-in electric air pump. The boat also has dedicated liferaft stowage and a stainless tubular lifeline gate that doubles as a fold-down step.
A huge forward sail locker can be fitted out as an optional skipper cabin. The lazarette measures 2.1 by 1.5 by 0.35 meters and can be accessed from above or through the bathing platform.
Known Issues
Writing in Yachting World, the tester noted that longer handrails along the coachroof sides would help crew moving forward. The MFDs and instruments were also difficult to read from the outboard steering position.
The test boat had play, friction, and vibration in its steering system. The builder said these issues would be resolved on production boats. Access to the pilot rams and steering gear is through a lazarette side hatch only just wide enough to crawl through, making the equipment very difficult to reach at sea.
Viewed close up, the optional hardtop elements, mainsheet arch, and windscreen don’t integrate cleanly. Too many changes in surface level keep the arrangement from looking clean and stylish.
The Verdict
The Jeanneau Yachts 55 boldly rethinks the cruising-yacht interior. It trades a conventional belowdecks saloon for on-deck living space better suited to warm-latitude voyaging, all wrapped in a stiff, easy-to-handle hull with serious electric sail handling.
She’s less convincing for sailors who want a protected indoor cabin or easy access to the steering gear at sea. Her light-air performance and small fuel tank also warrant attention.
Pros
- Forward owner’s suite occupies two-thirds of the interior and includes a full-width berth
- Twin forward helms and electric winches allow single-handed furling and reefing
- Walkaround side decks provide step-free foredeck access and a high safety bulwark
- Form-stable hull stayed below 13 degrees of heel in puffs
Cons
- Galley is accessible only through the cockpit and main companionway
- Steering gear is impractical to reach at sea; the builder claimed the test boat’s vibration would be fixed in production
- Standard mainsheet arch lacks a traveler for fine control of sail shape
- 230-liter fuel tank is small for the 110-horsepower engine
